A former Fresno investment adviser has pleaded guilty to defrauding clients of more than $3.2 million, U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner said Tuesday.

Joseph Randall Medcalf, 56, pleaded guilty Monday to three counts of mail fraud and one count of bankruptcy fraud.

Medcalf admitted that he defrauded his clients from May 2002 to October 2007 by encouraging them to invest in bogus investment opportunities, primarily two that he had formed himself, Wagner said.

Those were All Valley Holdings LLC and CenCal Value Investments LLC. Medcalf did not invest the clients' money as promised but used it for his personal expenses and enjoyment, Wagner said.

Medcalf did not register the investments with the Securities and Exchange Commission or other government agencies. He persuaded clients to move their IRAs and other investments to him, Wagner said. Medcalf's investments were nonexistent, failing or worthless, Wagner said.

In October 2007, he also filed a bankruptcy petition in which he failed to disclose his connection with his bogus entities to avoid disclosing his scheme, Wagner said.

Medcalf then fled to Panama in 2008. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in Fresno in March 2011. Later that year, Panamanian officials arrested Medcalf after U.S. authorities sought his extradition. He has been in U.S. custody for more than a year since the FBI arrested him in Atlanta.

Medcalf is scheduled to be sentenced May 13 by U.S. District Judge Anthony W. Ishii.